At the end of April, the weather is getting hotter, and the ants’ favorite summer is slowly approaching.
After intensive deployment of troops and transportation of materials, the Red Fire Ant Nation finally assembled an army of 200,000 in the border area, including as many as 80,000 of its own elite warriors. Carrying five days' worth of military rations, this large army invaded the leaf-cutter ant country's forest territory.
The Leafcutter Ant Nation has already obtained information about the enemy's gathering through scouts, and the Envoy King's Army has also provided warnings through the Flying Knights. The leaf-cutter ant army had the dual advantage of intelligence and defense. They assembled a total of more than 300,000 troops to fight, and they also had an advantage in numbers.
The first phase of the battle was fought in the woods. On the battlefield, the ground and trees were filled with dense ants fighting. Both sides fought for every inch of ground, every branch, and every rock.
When the fighting was at its fiercest, both sides did not withdraw their troops even at night, but continued to fight regardless of life and death. Fortunately, the temperature is not too low at night now, so the soldiers on both sides can persevere.
The fire ant army still used the old tactics this time: the fire ant warriors and the tunneling ant warriors were responsible for the ground attack, while the forest ant warriors, abdominal ant warriors and black brown ant warriors fought on the trees, and coordinated attacks above and below the trees. , the main attack is under the tree, and the flank is covered by the tree.
Last year, the fire ant army relied on such tactics and gave full play to the specialties of each tribe to achieve a great victory. In one fell swoop, they captured a large nest in the leaf-cutting ant country and killed hundreds of thousands of leaf-cutting ant residents.
But this time, the leaf-cutter ant nation came prepared and took advantage of many aspects, vowing to take revenge.
On the ground, for three consecutive days, the red fire ant army made a breakthrough and pushed the front line close to the leaf-cutter ant tree nest.
But in the trees, the auxiliary soldiers of the red fire ant army failed to keep up. There was a disconnect between the top and bottom of the tree, sowing the seeds of failure. The leaf-cutter ant army invested its main force in the trees, took the initiative to attack and continuously divided the slave warriors surrounding the red fire ant army, killing a large number of enemy troops.
When all the forest ant warriors of the fire ant army were killed and injured, the ants and black and brown ants could not resist at all and fled to the ground one after another.
The leaf-cutter ant army, which completely controls the battlefield on the tree, can maneuver at will as if it has air supremacy. The criss-crossing roads in the tree are constantly interspersed, and they always surprise and surprise the fire ant army on the ground to the side or even the rear.
An army of leaf-cutting ants raided the main formation where the elders of the fire ant army were located. Although they were fought back by the fire ants, they also lost many senior commanders of the fire ant army.
The most terrible thing is that the fire ant army's troops protecting the food were defeated. The food was scattered everywhere, and some of it was captured by the leaf-cutting ant army.
This is a rapidly changing battlefield. The fire ant army has no chance to collect food while fighting, so it can only decide to withdraw.
Faced with the enemy's retreat, the leaf-cutter ant army pursued them on a large scale. Finally, the red fire ant army abandoned all the slave auxiliary soldiers in the rear and allowed them to be slaughtered by the leaf-cutter ant army, thus protecting the 50,000 hungry natives. The clan warriors retreated into their territory.
In this battle, the red fire ant army lost 150,000 troops, all the slave auxiliary troops of the four tribes were wiped out, and nearly half of the soldiers of the own tribe were also lost in the battle. This is the biggest defeat suffered by the red fire ant country in recent years.
The leaf-cutting ant army, which had won the defensive battle, launched a counterattack this time, and the battle entered the second stage.
An army of 200,000 leaf-cutter ants entered the territory of the red imported fire ant country and began to besiege several red fire ant nests near the border.
However, in the ground battle, the average combat effectiveness of the leaf-cutter ant army was not as good as that of the red fire ant army. The red fire ant army assembled another 100,000 troops. The two sides fought in the border area for less than half a month.
The leaf-cutting ant army only captured a few weakly defended nests, but failed to achieve any major results.
During this period, the God's Envoy Army was still taking the opportunity to develop. In mid-May, the God's Envoy Army had already filled the vacancies of seven legions, and was preparing to form four new legions at the same time.
The protagonist naturally hopes that the war between the leafcutter ant country and the red fire ant country will continue as long as possible. The two sides have recently reached a stalemate, and neither side has the intention to give up. This means that the war may be extended indefinitely, which makes the protagonist overjoyed.
Although the protagonist does not understand the details of the war between the two sides, after all, the flying knights do not dare to risk going deep into the forest where the trees are full of ants from both sides, but the general situation of the war can still be grasped.
Especially after the battlefield was moved to the plains within the Red Fire Ant Kingdom, the flying knights' detection efficiency was greatly improved.
No, the protagonist discovered some unusual behaviors of the leaf-cutting ant army in the Flying Knight's information package.
While fighting repeatedly with the fire ant army, a group of leaf-cutting ant troops, mainly composed of leaf-cutter ants, actually arrived at the newly occupied nest carrying many saplings.
These are saplings, not the shredded leaves that leafcutter ants often collect and transport. The smallest saplings are as big as bean sprouts and require dozens of leaf-cutting ants to move them. The largest saplings are as big as a human palm and require hundreds of leaf-cutting ants to move. In addition, some star beetles were also used as labor animals to join the transport team.
These saplings are all alive. After being transported to their destination, holes were dug and planted immediately. The leaf-cutting ants even brought water drops to water these newly transplanted saplings with fragile root systems every day.
These leaf-cutting ants can actually plant trees... the protagonist is a little surprised!
But it's just a surprise. After all, ants are already civilized. It's not uncommon for ant tribes like leafcutter ants, which are closely related to the forest, to plant trees. The Angel King's legion can smelt iron, which is probably even more strange to other ants.
If you think about it, leaf-cutting ants plant trees and then collect leaves to grow fungi. This is a complete set of mature agricultural processes.
Moreover, when leaf-cutting ants plant trees near the nest they occupy, it is equivalent to completely incorporating the land into their territory. After all, leaf-cutting ants need forests to produce, and it is also more conducive to fighting. Just like in Warcraft, when the undead occupy a new land, they must first pollute it.
It may take up to ten years for these saplings to barely grow into a forest. The nests they have just occupied before then are still very fragile and still need local food and protection.
However, after all, leaf-cutter ants have taken steps to expand, and can encroach on the territory of the red fire ant country bit by bit, turning the plains into forests. This is a conspiracy.
Moreover, even if the fire ant army is powerful, it will be difficult to counterattack given the current lack of troops.
After thinking about the purpose of the Leafcutter Ant Kingdom for a while, the protagonist somehow remembered the strange symbol "talisman" of the Leafcutter Ant Kingdom:
A roughly circular capital symbol, with a small gap left at the bottom instead of closing; a small seedling pattern with two leaves grows out of the gap; and at the top of the circle, there are two short arcs going towards it respectively. Stretched left and right, it looks like a pair of ears.
Combined with the behaviors of leaf-cutter ants, forests, and tree planting, an idea flashed in the protagonist's mind.
This symbol actually is! It is! It is!
